A Healthy Democracy? Evidence of Unequal Representation across Health Status*

Recent research finds that healthy citizens are more likely to vote than their less healthy counterparts, yet we know little about the political consequences of health disparities in participation. Using public opinion from the 2012 Congressional Cooperative Election Survey (CCES) coupled with roll call data, I assess the degree to which representation by Members of Congress (MCs) varies across health status. I show that healthy citizens enjoy significantly better policy representation than unhealthy citizens, even after controlling for income. MC factors can increase the representation of unhealthy citizens including representation by Democrats and, to a lesser extent, women. *A previous version of this paper was presented as part of the University of Iowa’s Political Science Departmental series.